Bill Barnwell breaks down the effects of Gronk's injury on the pats

[aluminum seats]

Oh it's absolutely f**king stupid because those numbers are mainly based off 2013 which anyone knows on here was arguably the worst set of receivers Brady has ever had.

Also Brady didn't join the Pats in '10

No, but it's six years, not a small sample size.

 

[TomPatriot]

brady's struggled in the playoffs without gronk..

2013 title game away in denver. 2012 title game at home against the ravens. no gronk, but he still had welker, woodhead, hernandez, brandon lloyd...

But they have Bennett, who is a very good TE.

 

[SVN]

He had three rings and 4 SB appearances before Gronk arrived. Plus Mitchell looks like he is coming into his own as the season progresses and Dion is back. And there is that huge all-pro TE "backup." They are better with Gronk but Brady still has a lot of weapons. I think JM is pretty much right.

You are right but those team had a lot of defensive leaders and playmakers which helped. Just going back everytime to 3 rings before gronk is assuming brady did everything in those. Its not. Our current defense at least as of now doesnt have a game changing playmaker e.g von miller, khalil mack etc so that comparison is off. Yes the offense is better than those 3 teams which went to the superbowl but cant it help this defense in the playoffs remains to be seen. I keep going back to the 2012 season AFCCG vs the ravens. The offense didnt do much at all in the game at the same point the defense gave up critical drives to flacco and jim caldwell at home. Hopefully we are better than that this time.

 

[SVN]

If Bennett is half the player Gronk is, they should be fine at the TE spot. Other teams are not going to leave bennett alone. You won't see defenses roll two guys on him (I anticipate them double teaming edelman), but that leaves him one-on-one with a LB. I'll take that matchup any day. It should be noted that Bennett has been severely underutilized this year. Part of that is Brady always throwing to Gronk, part of that is injury.

Benett has been a huge part of the running and blocking game. People point to us going 3-1 without gronk and brady. Partly because how well we blocked esp vs arizona and bennett was a huge part of it. You remove bennett from blocking , the oline better step up. I for once want to see the no huddle back. We have not used it all year for some reason.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

Someone has to do the blocking now. Bennett will be running routes.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Benett has been a huge part of the running and blocking game. People point to us going 3-1 without gronk and brady. Partly because how well we blocked esp vs arizona and bennett was a huge part of it. You remove bennett from blocking , the oline better step up. I for once want to see the no huddle back. We have not used it all year for some reason.

They are probably saving no-huddle for the post-season, just like they did with the edelman double-pass in the divisional game against baltimore in 2014.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Someone has to do the blocking now. Bennett will be running routes.

Fleming, I guess.

 

[TomPatriot]

You are right but those team had a lot of defensive leaders and playmakers which helped. Just going back everytime to 3 rings before gronk is assuming brady did everything in those. Its not. Our current defense at least as of now doesnt have a game changing playmaker e.g von miller, khalil mack etc so that comparison is off. Yes the offense is better than those 3 teams which went to the superbowl but cant it help this defense in the playoffs remains to be seen. I keep going back to the 2012 season AFCCG vs the ravens. The offense didnt do much at all in the game at the same point the defense gave up critical drives to flacco and jim caldwell at home. Hopefully we are better than that this time.

Except I didn't just say "3 rings."

IIRC, in the Ravens AFCCG the Pats moved the ball but stalled in the red zoned had a few TOs. They had something like 400-450 yards of offense. He's not quite Gronk but Bennett has been a red zone threat ever since he emerged with the Giants.

And assuming that they will lose without Gronk now just because they lost to the Ravens in the 2012 AFCCG without Gronk is worse than harking back to the 3 SBs they won. It was one game. The Pats OL in that game was putrid and was considerably worse than this one. They had no TE at all, except Hernandez, who was a move TE.

 

[Bruins29]

TB was a HOF QB 2 years before Gronk ever took a snap of college football. The notion that TB aint TB without gronk is (as pointed out) ridiculous.

Its not even worth discussing

 

[RIpats88]

I know the ultimate plan was to play bennett and gronk together(but they have only played 27% of snaps on the field together) but you know in trading for bennett belicheck definitely took into account gronks injury history and having a backup plan. and that backup plan being a pro bowl tight end who can pick up gronks slack.

while the media is predicting doom for the patriots, lest they forget we went 3-1 without brady and gronk. not to dowplay his greatness, but gronk had 3-4 good games where he was a factor this season

while it hurts, we are much better equipped to handle it. edelman, hogan, mitchell, bennett, amendola, white and lewis is still a pretty good offense. . you might be able to argue that brady without edelman has been worse than brady without gronk. I still dont see anyone in the afc that is so unsurmountable right now that we cant get to the superbowl. especially if they come through foxboro

 

[goheels22002]

It's also very clear that Tom Brady is not Tom Brady without Rob Gronkowski.

What an absolutely stupid f**king comment.

Agreed! I guess Brady was somebody else when he won 3 Super Bowls and went to one other without Gronk.

Besides, this is among the best running games in Brady's tenure, outside of Corey Dillon's 1,635 yard season, with Blount playing lights out, and Lewis and White and Develin all healthy and doing their jobs. The offensive line is probably the most affected by Gronk's absence outside the tackles in running situations, but Bennett is a superb blocker.

The Rams have given up an average 148 yards per game over the last three games. Look for more than that tomorrow.

The Patriots beat the Cardinals and the Dolphins with Garoppolo at QB and Gronk essentially out. Barnwell's missing most of the current context of this football team.

 

[stinkypete]

Missing from the conversation is the fact that the Patriots offense operated fine without Gronk in the Arizona, Miami, San Francisco and Jets games. Four games is a pretty decent sample to show that this offense can function without him.

 

[heavyde050]

He's just basing it on the numbers, where it's sort of true. You can add context to it, but it's not "absolutely stupid f**king" etc.

Basing it on numbers to say that Brady without Gronk is no better than Joe Flacco or Sam Bradford is the definition of missing the forest for the trees.
Taking away any quarterbacks best receiver will force said quarterback to adapt, but I don't care what any metric says, I will take TB12 over Joe Flacco and/or Sam Bradford every Sunday (or Thursday or Saturday or Monday for that matter).